Bye'ao

Last day in Wai'ao was good.

Too much beach = sunburn

Went to a Mexican bar/eatery. Only two other people there. Turned out to be Tasmanians. Over the back fence neighbours of Felix. Small world.

Yilan agan

Reversed yesterday's order. Went to Toucheng between swims and went to Yilan for the evening.

Walked back from Toucheng to go to the Lanyang museum. I wonder if the building was designed by the son of opera house man.

Yilan was a great choice for dinner. I found a night market and had the local specialty which is a pancake with Spring onions. The man asked if I wanted a sauce that looked like a nice satay with bits of crushed nuts in it. It wasn't satay and they weren't crushed nuts, they were chilli seeds. My lips are still burning. Also had grilled corn which did have a fantastic peanut sauce.

Yilan station has a giraffe on the roof. Just sayin

Going back in time to midday, On the walk back from Toucheng there are lots of little temples

And I saw a shop that seemed to serve cockroaches, needless to say I didn't sample any.

Last but not least there seems to be a trio of mythical characters who welcome people to Wai'ao beach

Yilan

Another Taiwanese breakfast. Went straight for the good bits, then moved rooms. Very similar room but different building. This one is beachfront.

Went for morning swim after moving. Lovely. Then went to the local big smoke called Yilan. Had a look around and had lunch. Pork buns. They were so delicious and moist and tasty. Nothing like dollar dumpling dim sims.  I am going to have to go back another day and have more.

I deliberately picked the ones with vegetable on the top, because that's what I do.

When I returned to Wai'ao for afternoon swim I took advantage of the new waterproof features of the phone and took it out into the water to take some photos back at the beach and hills. Didn't drop it . But you know I could have.

This one is like a painting I feel

The domes are on a big flash building that I thought might be my accommodation. No such luck.

Went in to the medium size smoke for dinner. Called Toucheng. Speaking of pleasant surprises - ordered a vegetably looking noodle dish. Turned out to be salad. Veru nice!

Got waved at and tooted by some ladies in a van. Turned out to be the landlady offering a lift back.

Wai'ao, Wai ai ai ao, daylight come, no more wanna go home

Day two, much happier with beach holiday. The seafood banquet helped, also I now know how to get in to town and I haven't yet been run over.

Also, it is a beautiful place despite the still obvious ravages from the typhoon just under a week ago.

It is a black sand kind a beach. And, despite it being a renowned surfing beach, Queenslanders would collapse laughing at the so called surf. But very beautiful and glorious swimming water.

They also have hang gliding from the top of a hill. Landing on the beach. Very tempting! Unfortunately you have to find your own way to the top of the high hill, AND there is no guarantee of a ride - depends  how long the queue is.  Will see what happens over the next day or two, I might make a friend with a car.

Here is one just about to land.

The other alternative for a bit of adventure is a trip to Geishan (turtle) island.

Apparently it is all about whale and turtle watching. I just have to get to Wushu harbour somehow.

Geishan Island

Big bowl of fried rice for dinner tonight - I found the lost eating venue.  It wasn't as flash as the fish banquet but was very nice.  Quite hot too, and my clean shirt is still clean.

Maybe I will lose some weight seeing I can't find a dessert to save myself.

Wai'ou

Funny how a great experience can come along in the most unexpected circumstances.  Like when you are on holiday and you can't communicate with anyone, there are no footpaths, only two places to eat in town and you can't find one of them.  And you end up eating this fish banquet with chopsticks. Sashimi and crab and huge prawn and more giant crab claw and soup and ..........

Travelled to Wai'ou today for the next five nights ( well we'll see). No dramas until I got here and then it took me ages to find the place. There was nothing that looked remotely like Jia Ying holiday village, so I just kept on walking. Then had to walk back. Road is a four lane highway with no footpaths, hills and mountains on one side and beach on the other.

The landlady and I communicate (not really) with google translate on her phone. There are three places to eat. One I can't find and a pizza joint.  The other is a fish restaurant. Three choices of set menu.  I took the middle one as partly described above.  The sashimi included green lipped abalone and a sea snail. There was a second serve of crab and a whole fish, hands were too sticky by then to take a photo.

Dessert was a small sweet potato and a tiny apple. The sweet potato was unbelievably delicious. Seriously

Did I mention that I made a mess. All had to be eaten with chop sticks and a couple of crab implements, and there was a packet of tissues on the table.

Taiwan on

Only joking, but I did find a vodka Margherita in the 7/11 for about 2 bucks.

This way of getting to Childcare looks exciting but not sure if it is, especially on rainy days

Went to Chaing Kai sek memorial this morning which is about the same size as the great pyramid by my reckoning, but I didn't take a tape measure

I did check for photo bombing octogenarians before shooting though.

A short walk from the memorial was the botanical gardens and the national museum. The museum had one floor of museumy stuff and three floors of art. My kind of museum.  Most of the art was quirky but I liked this one

After a swim and a rest I went to Taipei 101 the former (briefly) tallest building in the world.

 Couldn't be bothered waiting in the queue to go up.

Went to another night market for dinner. This one was mixed with food and lots of other stuff.

Got some grilled scallops, a grilled giant mushroom (small size) and a grilled corn cob. The corn is white by the way. These night markets are great. You just get something and eat it. Then when you want to you get something else. The best thing is you can actually eat the food when and where you like - which is not normally the case.

I got an ice cream yesterday in IKEA (don't ask) and had to stand in the corner facing the wall to eat it with the other customers.

Taiwan 2016

First proper day. Wonderful. 

Arrived yesterday, got upgraded to a suite (two rooms, guest bathroom etc)

Went to Longshan temple 

Hoping this ain't what my house looks like when I get back!

It was in an old area of Taiwan with alley ways and all sorts. I went through the herbal medicine laneway and found an old Qing dynasty school which has displays and stuff.

Went to the Taipei zoo afterwards. It had some beautiful animals

Was supposed to be a non-cage zoo I thought.  Sadly it wasn't 

Still, most of the animals had plenty of room. Feel really sad for the birds though.

Going to the Ningxia night markets tonight. This is a food speciality market.

LATER THAT VERY NIGHT

Yep, Ningxia market was definitely good value. I got off at the wrong station but still got there (no comments from the cheap seats please)

Had the famous stinky tofu

There were these old wooden non electric or mechanical poker machines. Kids and all were playing on them.  Earlier in the day I saw some really old pinball machines as well, all wood and hand operated.